updated 03:45 pm EST, Tue December 13, 2011

Bids soar despite low attendance

(Updated with new price from Sotheby's) The documents used to found Apple have sold at a Sotheby's auction for $1.35 million, says Fortune. An original contract in the bundledates back to April 1st, 1976, and sports the signatures of Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, as well as Ronald Wayne, who within less than a month withdrew his partnership, sacrificing a stake that would eventually become worth billions. It was Wayne, though, who preserved the documents and sold them to a manuscript dealer, who eventually sold them to Sotheby's.

The auction is said to have been lightly populated, but quickly escalated in terms of bidding. While it started at $70,000, it broke the $1 million level within 10 minutes, ultimately going to a telephone buyer. Early estimates had the documents valued at no more than $150,000.

Update: Sotheby's now indicates that the documents sold for over $1.59 million, not $1.35 million.